Making Choices or Making Options? Race, Community, and Collective Action to Transform School Options

Andrew Frangos

About one-third of U.S. public K-12 schools today did not exist thirty years ago. Even amidst declining enrollments and school closures, parents continue demanding new schools. I argue that a better understanding of these demands and their context can help districts and communities lead the public toward building more equitable school systems. School choice positions parents and caregivers as individual consumers of education options. However, when faced with options that do not satisfy their ideals, some parents engage in collective strategies to address school options directly. I call such strategies second-order school choice to capture the intention to transform or defend the options and accessibility that bind individual choices. With the aim of theorizing and empirically describing second-order school choice, this dissertation investigates a series of failed proposals to secure a high school for Chicago's Greater Chinatown area. First, I draw upon two years of ethnographic fieldwork with Chinatown community organizations to analyze their role in shaping public discourse about race and community during the most recent proposal for a local high school. Second, I develop a historical explanation connecting the evolving set of school options around Greater Chinatown with the dynamics of urban and education politics to reveal distinct periods regarding who is empowered to demand new schools and why. Lastly, I analyze the perspectives of local parents who chose to engage in collective action, showing the tensions between school choice, community identity, and solidarity that districts and community organizations seek to navigate in education planning processes.

About Andrew Frangos

Andrew Frangos is a doctoral candidate and Committee on Education Fellow at the University of Chicago's School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Their research seeks to understand how education policy, urban development, and community organizing efforts shape the racialized distribution of education opportunities. Andrew's dissertation examines contestation surrounding a series of proposals for a new high school to serve Chicago's Chinatown. Grounded in extended fieldwork, they aim to theorize the role of community-based organizations in shaping the urban education options amidst demographic change, shifting racial ideologies, and evolving education policies regarding school choice. Andrew's other ongoing research investigates racial equity discourses in urban development, urban electoral dynamics, and community organizations' use of public education data. In addition to academic research, Andrew has collaborated with Chicago Public Schools on multiple projects, authoring reports to support research-informed policy. Andrew teaches undergraduate and master's-level students at the University of Chicago through courses focused on race and education, social policy, and research methods. Previously, they worked for seven years in the Los Angeles Unified School District as a high school math and engineering teacher, an intervention coordinator, and an instructional coach. Andrew supported district-wide initiatives to promote equitable grading and instruction, as well as student and union organizing to address social justice issues. Andrew holds a B.S. in Systems Science and Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and received an M.A. in Education from Claremont Graduate University through a fellowship from Math for America Los Angeles.